Johnny McKay

Name: Jonathan "Johnny" Ray McKay

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Grade: Junior

School: Cochise High School

Hobbies and Interests: Watching birds, reading about birds, some casual drug use, stealing, spending time alone in the desert, practicing with an air rifle.

Appearance: At 5'8" tall and weighing 124 lbs, Johnny has a lean, almost childish frame, with thin limbs and narrow shoulders. Regular, structured exercise is alien to him, and he has little to no muscular definition. He keeps thin through a fast metabolism, infrequent meals and a constant twitchiness which seems to burn a lot of calories. Johnny suffers from eczema and dermatitis, with very dry skin, and red, blotchy patches in his inner elbows, under his arms and across his chest and throat. He scratches often.

Johnny's eyes are a light brown, large and far apart in his narrow, angular face, set deep under his patchy eyebrows. His nose is long, but thin, turning up in a point at the end. Beneath it, his mouth is wide and thin lipped, a little feminine but not unhandsome, provided it remains closed. Johnny's teeth are extremely crooked, long overdue for orthodontic correction. His incisors in particular are located nearly a full centimetre above the rest of his teeth and jut out almost horizontally, giving him something of a feral, almost animal look when he smiles. His hair is a particularly dirty shade of dirty blonde, cut by his mother. It was shaved nearly two months ago, and is now in the process of growing out, tufty and unruly.

Many of Johnny's clothes were handed down from his older brother, Darren, three years Johnny's senior. Even at 15, Darren had 3" and 30lbs on Johnny's current height and weight, and as a result many of the younger boy's clothes are much too large for him. Darren McKay liked greens and greys, and so most of Johnny's clothes come in those colours. He does, however have a great number of shoes, which he has collected from various people's porches. A pair of black, high-top Chuck Taylors are what he wears most often, though if exercise is called for, he swaps those out for a pair of women's high-end running shoes, which are white and purple. He has unusually small feet.

Johnny's most prized item of clothing is a hoodie he was given by Darren, two birthdays ago. Initially bright red and well fitting, time and a growth spurt have rendered it faded and tight, though Johnny still loves it, and wears it whenever the weather permits. It has pictures of a rib cage on the front and back, and bones on the arms, mimicking the appearance of a skeleton. He treasures this hoodie, wearing it at every opportunity, and it is frequently dusty, dirty or stained in some way. Due to the heat in Kingman, Johnny often wears it unzipped, without a shirt underneath, though only outside school hours as this would comprise a violation of Cochise's dress code.

Biography: Johnny was born in 1998 to Louis McKay Senior and Tricia McKay nee Bell. Louis Senior had trained as a mechanic, but had difficulty getting work, and bounced from one job to another for most of Johnny's childhood and adolescence, working intermittently as a ranch hand, a custodian, a landscaper, a construction worker and a barman, interspersed by ever-longer periods of unemployment. Tricia McKay cleaned houses. The two had met in Cochise High School, when they were students there. Louis Senior had been in his final year, with a scholarship to pursue fine art at Arizona State, which he turned down when Tricia had fallen pregnant with Darren.

Johnny had a generally happy childhood. His father still worked at a garage at that point, and the boys were often left in the care of a sitter. The McKays lived in one of Kingman's larger trailer parks, and there were always plenty of older kids willing to keep an eye on the two of them. The brothers got along well, playing together often and enjoying one another's company. Johnny idolized the older boy, seeing him as a protector and as a role model, while Darren made sure that his little brother never got himself into too much trouble around the park.

Although both sets of grandparents were alive, and lived locally, the McKays had long since cut ties with Tricia's parents, who didn't approve of Louis or their daughter's relationship with him. Louis' mother and father were around, though Johnny saw little of them growing up: occasional visits to their house on Christmas and Thanksgiving were about the extent of their relationship. Louis' brother, Toby also lived locally, and would visit the McKay's trailer fairly regularly, though usually for a drink, late at night, meaning Johnny didn't see a whole lot of him either. As he got older and was allowed to stay up later, Johnny tended to avoid Toby. His uncle had a sarcastic and mean-spirited personality that became increasingly cruel the more he had to drink, and he delighted in taunting Johnny about his looks and intelligence.

At a very early age, Darren showed himself to have inherited their father's artistic ability, and he was very much the favourite son. Johnny had been late to start talking, and his parents had some doubts about his intelligence. He was naturally curious, but tired of things quickly: any attempt to immerse him in an activity was doomed to failure, as he would soon lose interest and wander off to investigate something else. When she was around, Tricia made frequent attempts to improve his focus by forcing him to sit still, and not allowing him to abandon whatever it was he was doing, as soon as he wanted to, though most of these ended in tears and tantrums. Louis and the sitters tended to simply leave him to his own devices, content to let Darren entertain the younger boy, or for the young Johnny to simply find his own fun. Though he didn't have much in the way of toys, Johnny was an imaginative child, and could play happily with mundane, everyday objects such as cutlery and shoes, often to his parents' annoyance.

Entering elementary school opened Johnny up to a new world, socially. There were closer schools than the one his parents sent him to, where most of the park kids went, but Louis was adamant that his boys go to school where he went to school, and so Darren and Johnny would catch a bus across town each morning. Most of the other kids at their school were from that area, and tended to be from a different socio-economic background to Darren and Johnny. Most of them wore clothes that weren't from thrift stores, and had haircuts from hairdressers, rather than from their mom.

Even at that age Darren was good looking and sociable, and adapted well to this new world, but Johnny was a bit of an oddity to the other kids, and he found it much harder to get acceptance. Johnny experienced some initial taunting and exclusion, but soon learned that he had a particular knack for making the other children laugh. He found that if they were giggling at him, they'd be much less likely to call him names, or take his things. He played up his ignorance for their amusement, pretending to mispronounce things, or not know who certain celebrities were, and the other kids by and large left him alone.

Johnny's entrance into elementary school confirmed the McKays' worst fears about him. His teachers found him inattentive and easily distracted, and he would often find himself in trouble with them. Johnny wasn't disruptive on purpose, he simply had difficulty maintaining focus on anything for long. One result of this was that he fell behind in basic math and reading, and was consistently one of the worst performing students in his class throughout elementary school.

Numerous letters were sent home with Johnny about his behaviour, and those that weren't lost or forgotten urged his parents to try and work with their son and address his attention problems. Problems were emerging at home, however, and neither of his parents had the time or energy to devote to their difficult son. Louis' attitude to work had always been poor: he'd taken the job to support Tricia instead of going off to college, and he resented it, seeing the work as beneath him. His lateness, foul temper and on-the-job drinking all became too much when Johnny was six, and Louis McKay lost his job. The financial strain this put on the family was exacerbated by Tricia falling pregnant again and eventually giving birth to Louis Jr, which took her away from work for some months. Louis managed to find work again as a janitor for a number of small offices, and stayed in that job until Tricia was able to get to work, but money was tight for some months, things in the McKay household were tense, and Johnny's problems by and large went unaddressed.

For Johnny, these tensions at home went by largely unnoticed. Both of his parents were too preoccupied to pay him much mind over this period, and he was essentially left to his own devices. The park was like his playground, and there were a number of children there of his own age, granted similar freedom by their parents, who were free to play with him whenever he pleased. Johnny was a social and friendly child, and generally got on well with the other park kids. The park was a large one, and there were always places they could find, away from adult eyes, to play games of tag or make-believe. These started out innocently enough, but became more dangerous as Johnny got older: smashing bottles, setting off firecrackers, jumping off the roofs of trailers or out of trees all became common elements of their play. The McKays took little notice. If Johnny was making it to school, was home for dinner and wasn't hurting anyone, that was good enough for them, and this inattention was very much to Johnny's liking, with him reveling in the freedom he was granted.

Darren, meanwhile, was kept on a much shorter leash. Tall, handsome and charming, Louis McKay found his elder son to be pleasant company, on those days when he was home out of work. Tricia too found him useful to have around, especially when pregnancy rendered her increasingly immobile. Darren was successful at school, and was gifted artistically, and was considered to be the future of the family: while Johnny was allowed to roam the park relatively freely, Tricia or Louis Sr. would always ensure that Darren did his schoolwork and stayed out of trouble. Darren was an obliging son, but he came to resent this double standard, and his parents for imposing it. Unlike Johnny, he saw the acrimony building between the two of them, and the strain that his father's sense of superiority was putting on their family.

Another point of contention between Tricia and Louis Sr. was over the state of the boys' souls. Louis had been raised Catholic, but no longer had much time for the church, while Tricia was a Baptist of some enthusiasm. Louis saw church attendance as a waste of time, whereas Tricia saw it as an absolute necessity. Darren quickly tired of it, and Tricia reluctantly ceased to bring him, but much to Louis Sr.'s annoyance she would not give up on taking Johnny with her, despite his protestations. In this and this alone, one of Johnny's parents valued him above his brother. As Tricia saw it, Darren could be anything he wanted, whereas all Johnny could hope to be was good. Louis Sr. alternated between seeing the whole thing as highly amusing and deeply annoying, but whenever he would mock or chastise Tricia for her efforts, she would ignore him.

His experiences of Church made a major impression on the young Johnny. He marvelled at the sense of community he felt between all the different sorts of people there, and the idea of a world beyond this one was immensely attractive to him, as were many of the Church's specific tenets. Johnny was particularly drawn to the idea of Sola Fide, where salvation can be achieved through faith alone. The idea that no matter what he might do, he could still be guaranteed a place in paradise if he just believed in God, was a source of great comfort for much of Johnny's young life.

A major turning point for both Johnny and Darren occurred when Johnny was bitten by a stray dog while playing in the park, aged 8. There were numerous dogs throughout the park, mostly owned by residents and almost all of them friendly. This was one of Johnny's first real experiences of physical aggression, and though the bite was not serious, not even requiring stitches, it left him quiet and withdrawn for days and with a lifelong fear of dogs. From thereon out he would avoid them while playing, if he could, or shoo them off if they came near him. For Darren, then aged 11, this was all the evidence he needed of the failure of his parents laissez-faire approach to Johnny's whereabouts and supervision. He blamed them for neglecting their son, and himself for not being there to protect his little brother, as he felt was his role. From then on, he became increasingly disobedient, refusing to do homework or stay home with his parents, choosing to play with Johnny or to pursue his own interests around the park instead. This was of great displeasure to Tricia and Louis Sr., with each blaming the other for their son's newfound rebelliousness. There was little that either could do however. With Tricia busy taking care of a one year old baby and working, and Louis Sr. ever more infrequently sober, neither had the time nor the energy to impose harsher discipline.

As Johnny entered middle school, the cracks in his parents' relationship continued to grow. Louis Sr was working odd jobs in construction and landscaping, but the shifts were unpredictable, and sometimes weeks would go by with nothing. He was spending more and more time away from their house, visiting his brother Toby, or out drinking with his "work buddies", as Tricia referred to them. Tricia herself was working overtime, and outside of church on Sunday mornings, Johnny would rarely see her. Occasionally at night he would hear her though, as she and her husband engaged in ever more frequent shouting matches into the early hours of the morning.

Darren, meanwhile, was also home less and less often. At 14, he was in his final year of middle school, and had become popular in his time there. He spent most of his time with friends from school, either at their houses or hanging around the town centre together. He never brought these friends home to visit, and Tricia was immensely suspicious of them as a result. How Darren was spending his free time became a constant source of arguments between him and his mother, and whenever Darren was home, the two of them seemed to constantly be fighting.

Louis Jr. was 4 at this time, and being looked after by a seemingly-endless rotation of local teenage girls. The youngest McKay was chubby and exuberant and the girls doted on him, and fawned over lean and good-looking Darren whenever he was around. Scrawny, awkward Johnny was paid little attention.

This suited Johnny just fine, however. His play with the other kids his age was beginning to roam further afield, and the more time and less supervision he was afforded, the better, as far as he was concerned. They'd wander through local neighbourhoods, racing on foot or on bikes, chasing cats and stealing shoes and packages off of doorsteps. Johnny also began to experiment with stealing from shops around this age, slipping chocolate bars up into his baggy sleeves shile pretending to read magazines in convenience stores, and walking out of shops holding comics as if he'd already paid for them.

Darren disapproved of his younger brother's behaviour, and repeatedly advised him to be smart, and not to live up to the "white trash" stereotype that much of Kingman saw the kids from the trailer park as being. Although the brothers were seeing less and less of each other, as Darren was spending his time away from the park, Johnny still looked up to his sibling, though he didn't quite take this message to heart. Still, he was careful from thereon out in his delinquent undertakings, and was never caught.

At school, Darren was also looking out for Johnny. Johnny's first year of middle school was Darren's last, and kids who might otherwise have picked on or teased Johnny left him alone, out of respect for his popular older brother. There was little overlap in their social circles: Darren's friends were popular and successful, mostly budding artists and athletes, whereas Johnny fell in with a clique of kids who didn't really fit in anywhere else, and even among them he was something of an outsider. Darren and his friends would sit in circles outside, or play basketball or soccer over lunch, whereas Johnny's crowd tended to hang out in the library, reading and playing cards. Still, Darren made sure to eat his lunch with his younger brother at least one day a week, to check up on him and make sure he was doing okay, and the brothers remained close.

Johnny started school behind most of the other kids academically, and he never caught up. None of his classes seemed able to hold his attention, and when homework was sent home with him, there were so many things that interested Johnny more than doing it. In class he was fidgety and distracted. He had trouble sitting still for an hour at a time, and found it difficult to refrain from sharing any interesting thoughts or ideas that came into his head. Teachers would describe him as a nuisance, and saw him as intentionally disrupting the other students' learning process. Few complaints were raised as he began to attend class less and less, with many of his instructors seeing it as something of a blessing. Phone calls made to his parents about his behaviour or his attendance either went unanswered, or were met with distracted and half-hearted assurances that Tricia would "have a word with him".

At this time, Johnny was being dressed mostly in Darren's hand-me-downs. These were a little big and baggy on him, and it was probably due to a combination of this, and his frequent absences, that his weight went unnoticed by his teachers. Among his extended family though, for whom Johnny was made to dress more formally for the rare family occasions at which he'd see them, his weight was a continual point of comment. Johnny was short for his age and thin for his height, with a body that seemed more appropriate for a child a good two or three years younger than he. Comments and questions regarding whether he was getting enough to eat became increasingly pointed and were a source of a number of arguments between Johnny's parents, especially his mother, and their relatives. Tricia in particular took great offence at the implication that she wasn't providing sufficiently for her child.

In truth, Johnny was most likely undernourished. Neither Tricia nor Louis Sr. had much time for cooking, and meals at home tended to be heated from frozen, and often the same thing for several nights in a row. Johnny was expected to make his own breakfast and lunch, and there were cereals and sandwich ingredients around the house, but Johnny was an absentminded boy, and these meals would often slip his notice. If he ever grew hungry, his go-to solution was candy from a vending machine, for which he had a particular sweet tooth, rather than more wholesome or nutritious food.

The lack of variety of food at home was much less of a problem for Darren, who often ate at the houses of friends, and who was diligent about providing himself with three meals a day. However, while Tricia and Louis Sr. took offence at comments made about Johnny's size, Darren took note, and began to prepare meals for his brother. Much as had happened when Johnny was bitten, Darren blamed himself for not taking responsibility in the situation sooner, and resented their parents for putting him in a situation where he had to take that responsibility. Johnny began to grow, though he remained smaller than his peers. He would hit a growth spurt at age 15, but even then he remained undersized.

When he was in his second year of Middle School, Johnny found a bird by the side of the road, near the park. It was following this that Johnny's interest in birds began to emerge. Birds were one of the few things that seemed able to hold his attention, and many of his classes were spent staring out a window, watching a Cactus Wren or a Yellow-Headed Blackbird hop along the gutters of a neighbouring building. He read every book the school library had on local birds and bird watching, and the procured a library card at the local public library to read their collection as well. Teachers who noticed his fixation simply assumed that it was a passing fancy, and that he'd lose interest in them, but Johnny would retain his particular fascination with birds for the rest of his life. In his freshman year of high school, he was given a set of binoculars by Darren, and they would become one of his most precious possessions.

As he continued through his middle school career, Johnny felt less and less connected to it. He was underperforming academically to the extent that discussions regarding holding him back a year were beginning to be had. He wasn't an athlete, and didn't participate in any form of afterschool extracurricular activity. Johnny liked his school friends well enough, but he didn't feel a particularly close bond with any of them. He realized that he was getting very little out of attending school, and began to see it as simply a waste of his time. More and more frequently Johnny began to skip class, going to the library instead, or hanging around the park. With many teachers this got him into trouble, but some simply ignored his absence, and Johnny came to the realization that for them, too, his presence was unnecessary and troublesome. His truancy was curbed to an extent by a number of conversations with his brother, who could see that Johnny was getting into trouble, and urged him to keep up with his studies and stick with school, telling him that even if he felt like he wasn't getting an education, at least it would give him a qualification, and whatever else he wanted to do would be aided by that. Johnny persevered, albeit with a certain reluctance, putting in only the most minimum of effort needed to carry him through from one year to the next.

Entering highschool many ways marked a great improvement for Johnny. The style of teaching he found much for engaging and conducive to his learning, for starters: knowing the "why" of things appealed to him in a way that rote learning did not. In his first years of high school, Johnny began to gain an understanding of his own learning process, realizing that although the minutiae of how they operated bored him, the broader underlying ideas and theories in maths, the sciences and English fascinated him. It wasn't always enough to hold his attention, yet alone get him to the practicalities of how they actually operated, but it did make attending class easier. He was far from a good student, or even a mediocre one, but he passed more often than not.

In a larger student body, it was easier for Johnny to find students with common interests, and to avoid the attention of students and teachers alike who might look to give him trouble. Johnny was again at school with Darren, but the elder McKay was preoccupied with his junior year, and the brothers saw little of one another. Johnny spent most of his freshman year with the same kids who he'd hung out with in middle school, but as he moved into his sophomore year he drifted apart from those students and into a crowd of mostly older kids who shared his offbeat interests and somewhat lackadaisical attitude towards schoolwork and attendance. Many of these kids were stoners, and this was a lifestyle that was both an easy and a natural transition for Johnny. Drugs were commonplace around the park, and the ease with which he could procure weed for his newfound friends caused them to overlook his unusual appearance and often awkward manner. Johnny found that getting high suited him. He felt less twitchy and over-energized when he was stoned, and other people seemed to find him less off-putting when they were similarly intoxicated. He was unemployed at this point, but there was considerable demand for pot among his friends, and he always took a small cut for himself whenever he bought for them, which tended to be enough to last him through the week.

Having drugs also got Johnny invited to parties, and he always enjoyed seeing his peers in various stages of inebriation, as well as getting a look inside their homes. This started out as simple snooping, a result of Johnny's natural curiosity when there weren't conversations that were able to hold his attention. Soon, though, he began to take things. Usually nothing big or conspicuous, just little things that he felt nobody would notice. If there were cash lying around he'd pocket it, but if it was something else he'd leave it outside somewhere, in a bush or under a car, so that he didn't get caught carrying it around. Johnny was very much aware that any good disposition towards him that people might have was due to him being a convenient way to get weed, and that he'd be seen as a lot less convenient if he were known to be pilfering from them. It was a lot of effort for Johnny to talk to people sometimes, but knowing that he'd at least leave a party with something made it much easier for him to motivate himself to actually attend them. Almost everyone whose party he attended was considerably more well off than he, and Johnny never had any compunctions about taking their possessions. Stealing, as a whole, was something that came quite naturally to Johnny, and in that year he amassed a not-inconsiderable collection of shoes, simply by taking them off of porches that he walked past.

This sophomore year was also when puberty really hit Johnny, and it left him gangly and acne-ridden. All remaining traces of baby fat shed away, and he was left with a long-limbed, angular figure and a case of chronic dermatitis, which had him frequently scratching his arms and throat, a habit that many of his peers found unpleasant and disconcerting. Darren and somehow been blessed with perfect teeth, and Louis Jr's were straight enough, but Johnny's, while clean, were horribly crooked, and he had more than once seen people visibly recoil at his smile. Johnny knew his appearance unsettled people, and he spent little time among students who he wasn't sure were friends of his, preferring his own company to that of strangers. His reading had expanded beyond birds to the natural world as a whole, and much of his free time was spent with a book in one hand and a spliff in the other.

At home, things had worsened. Louis Sr. would often be away for days at a time without notice of his leaving or his whereabouts, and Tricia had taken on a second job. Louis Jr. was frequently left in the care of Marci, a neighbour and friend of Tricia with twins of her own that age, and would sometimes stay with her for up to a week, when Tricia's schedule simply left her no time to take care of a young son. Neither Darren nor Johnny were as close to their younger brother as they were to one another, but they nevertheless shared an affection for him, and Johnny would always make sure to check in on LJ when he was at Marci's. Marci never seemed particularly excited to see him, Johnny noted, but she tolerated his presence.

Johnny's 16th year was an important one for him. He gained his graduated drivers license, and occasional driving lessons from his father marked a rare occasion for bonding between the two of them. Johnny found driving soothing to the point of being almost meditative, and took to it naturally, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Louis Sr. The McKay patriarch had never held his middle child in much regard. Still, during their drives together Louis Sr. was impressed by his son, and acknowledged that while he might never be a great success, he was also not doomed to be a complete failure.

Johnny had never had a particularly high opinion of his father either, but he found his father's calm manner much more conducive to his driving than Tricia's anxious, stressed demeanour had been in the one, terrible lesson that Johnny had had with his mother. Johnny recognized a number of traits in his father that he himself shared, that he hadn't noticed before: an easygoing attitude; a nervous twitchiness when distracted; a disregard for many of the cohabitants of their park, whom Louis Sr. would disparage as they drove by; and a certain fatalism in his view of the world and how it worked. Like many of his friends, Johnny had taken up smoking earlier that year, and though the car would often reek of cigarettes Louis Sr. never once commented on it except to warn him not to let his mother find out, which Johnny appreciated.

Perhaps the most important result of their renewed closeness though was Louis Sr. finding his son a job, doing dishes in the restaurant of an acquaintance of Uncle Toby's. Johnny didn't mind the menial work, and got on well with the other kitchen staff. All of them were several years older than him, and many of them had neither college degrees nor marriages, both of which were seeming like increasingly unrealistic and unappealing propositions to Johnny. He'd had his first sexual experience that year too - awful and fumbling at the party of another park kid, with some girl he barely knew -but he'd never been in a relationship, and had resigned himself to the fact that one was most likely not in the cards for him any time in the future. Still, it was nice for Johnny to see that there was an alternative path available to him to the one that he felt like the school system and his mother were pushing him towards.

Johnny only worked a couple of shifts a week, and much of his wages went to buying cigarettes from older kids, and buying gas. Almost immediately after Johnny had gotten his license, Louis Sr. had gotten a DUI, and so his father's 1994 Nissan Altima was basically his. Johnny loved driving alone, and would often drive over an hour out into the desert, just to be by himself with his thoughts. There was something about the desert that really appealed to Johnny, though he couldn't put his finger on quite what. Perhaps it was the bird life, which was abundant, and Johnny would always bring his binoculars to try and spot species he hadn't seen before. Alternatively, it might simply have been the emptiness, and not having to worry about people watching him, or wanting something from him, or making fun of him.

Johnny didn't watch much TV, or keep up with current events to any degree other than what he gleaned from conversations with his friends, but the vast empty desert somehow kept his attention in a way that modern media could not. Johnny had spent $8 on an air mattress from Walmart, and on weekends he'd sometimes take that out with him and spend the night out in the desert. Now in his Junior year, many of his friends had either graduated or were in their final year and talking about what colleges they'd go to and what they'd do with their lives, and Johnny was feeling increasingly isolated. Darren had left, now living somewhere in Texas after some massive fight with his parents that Johnny wasn't privy to the details of, and the brothers hadn't spoken in a number of months. Johnny missed his sibling, but he'd known for a while that Darren wouldn't be around forever. Johnny didn't mind being alone.

Another purchase of Johnny's at this time was an air rifle, which he absolutely loved. He carried it around in the backseat of his car, or in hand when he was walking around the park, and would use it to shoot at any dog that he saw. Violence on the whole abhorred Johnny, making him feel almost sick, but the idea of a dog being near him revolted him even more, and a warning shot was much more humane than throwing a rock at one of them, he reasoned. Occasionally Johnny and his park friends would practice with the rifle, shooting at glass bottles or tin cans, and Johnny would sometimes do the same by himself, out in the desert. He improved, to be sure, but he mostly practiced firing while sitting down, and when standing he found it difficult to steady his aim. While certainly better than anyone who'd never fired a gun before, Johnny was never more than a moderately competent shot, and was considerably worse than almost every one of his friends. In time, he stopped shooting while in other people's company.

Some might have said that Johnny had low self-esteem at this point, but others, including himself, would probably have said that he had quite a realistic appraisal of his own worth. Johnny knew he wasn't particularly smart. He knew he wasn't athletic, or attractive, or particularly pleasant to be around for most people. Johnny knew that nobody, with the possible exception of his mother, really expected him to amount to anything, and as he would say to anyone who asked him, which was almost no one, he liked it that way. Having no expectations on him was freeing, in many ways. No one would ever be disappointed, or push him to do anything other than what he wanted.

Now 17, Johnny has no plans to return to school next year, and instead intends to continue working in his current job, full time.

Advantages: Johnny is self-reliant and used to being on his own. He has never really seen himself as having much of a future, which might make the reality of his situation easier to adjust to for him than some of his peers. Johnny has experience firing an air rifle, but is far from an impressive shot.

Disadvantages: Johnny is easily distracted, not particularly intelligent, in poor shape physically, not very popular and has little regard for his own wellbeing. He has never been in a fight and is not inclined to violence. What's more, Johnny has a nicotine dependency which he will be unable to meet on the island, which may distract him further.

Designated Number: Male student No. 035

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Designated Weapon: Tracking Bug and Transponder

Conclusion: I think we're doing this kid a favour by cutting what little potential he has short. - Trent Camden

'The above biography is as written by Frogue. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Frogue, Bikriki

Kills: 

Killed By: 

Collected Weapons: Tracking Bug and Transponder (assigned weapon)

Allies: Raina Rose, Alice Baker, Penelope Fitzgerald

Enemies: Alessio Rigano

Mid-game Evaluation: Johnny woke in the basement of the asylum, the water treatment room where he quickly found a familiar face in Raina Rose and helped her. Alice Baker found them, and Raina and Johnny were able to convince her to be friendly and accompany them, primarily by assuring her that Raina could somehow save the class. They departed, ascending the stairs.

In the stairwell Johnny found a good friend, Aiden Slattery, and they embraced. He was accompanied by Scarlett McAfee, and very thickly in denial about their present state of being on island. The others tried to convince him otherwise, and Aiden became increasingly distraught which discomforted Johnny. Alice fled, guilty for her compliance in causing Aiden's return to reality. Scarlett heard the bell and ran off, Aiden following to keep her out of trouble. The two elected not to follow him after deliberation, believing it to be a likely waste of precious resources. They picked out a room from the intensive care wards to hole up in, shut themselves in for the night. Raina found her weapon, and they started to plan their future moves.

They spent the next two days hold up in the room, hearing about Scarlett and their other classmates' deaths over the announcements and struggling to come up with a plan. They finally decided to get a move on and search the asylum for supplies before moving onto the rest of the island as per Raina's plan. While searching the asylum, they came across Jasper Bustamante and Audrey Reyes in the group therapy room. They were friendly, nominally, but the peace was quickly broken when Alvaro Vacanti, a known killer, held them all at gunpoint. Jasper made an effort to keep the peace that was seemingly successful, but Raina and Johnny silently concluded the situation was too dangerous and made a break for it. Gunfire erupted as they fled.

They escaped the asylum and wound up fleeing to the crematorium gardens before exhaustion took over. Raina began to sob, and Johnny remained silent in an attempt at respect. She stayed still and immobile for a time, lost in her thoughts, Johnny only offered gentle encouragement in an attempt to get her to take charge again. Eventually she pulled through and made the call for them to go to the supply depot. They cleared the crematorium, which turned out to be a good thing as it was a danger zone by Day 4.

But Raina remained on edge, shocked by the death of her friend Wayne Cox, and Johnny remained silent and not capable of effectively providing emotional support. He himself was running out of ways to feel sympathetic, and continued to keep his mouth shut as Raina negotiated with Lili Williams and Darius Van Dyke. Darius eventually stormed away. Lili admitted to Raina at some point that she had no plan before she also left, and that infuriated Raina, to the point where Raina needed to step out, away from Johnny. Johnny was content to wait, until he realized she wasn't returning, then he set off to find her despite how she'd requested he not follow.

He quickly regretted the rashness of his plan, as he couldn't find Raina easily. He tried to enter the gym but his hand was struck and by a heavy weight, a trap set by Alessio Rigano, who confronted him. Neither said anything, until Al tried to test the tension by stepping forward, Johnny asked him not to, pointing out that Al was obviously untrustworthy when Al prompted him to. Al agreed to not approach, but pulled out a gun and demanded Johnny's water, but quickly changed his mind out of some twisted mercy and demanded food instead. Johnny bided his time then ran.

Come Day 6 Johnny's hand was swelling, despite his futile hopes to the contrary. He found Rene Wolfe and Blair Moore in the crematorium garden, he quietly approached despite Blair's annoyance, taking a friendly word from Rene as a chance to sit down and say his peace, which didn't amount to much. He was promptly ignored as Rene and Blair were indisposed by an incident that would ultimately end with Blair mercy killing Rene to save her from a lethal spider bite, Johnny merely sat nearby, time passing without him being directly involved in the proceedings in any way. When Blair left he also left, with only a cursory inspection of Rene's dead body.

On Day 7 he finally returned to Raina, finding her with her new ally Penelope Fitzgerald being accosted by a Benjamin Lichter who quickly made himself scarce. Raina was happy to see him, but Penelope was having an emotional moment. He explained himself when Raina asked, but her attention was mostly turned to Penelope and he merely stood by. He was able to vaguely claim that he was happy, mostly silently to himself, when Raina confirmed they were once more travelling together and she seemingly got Penelope to a more rational state so they could start off again.

They left early the next day to return to the asylum and to return to the other allies Raina and Penelope had found. They found one, Lili Williams, sharing the cafeteria with the unfortunately familiar Al Rigano, and blood had been spilled by someone not in the room. Penelope fainted and Raina confronted the two for information, leading Lili to reveal that Al had killed one of their other allies, Kiziah Saraki. Raina quickly concluded that Al was not to be trusted and had to leave, and Johnny did not hesitate to silently agree. Things got tricky, however, Penelope's pacifistic designs had her standing up on Al's behalf when she came to and was filled in, and she and Raina were drawn into an argument, Johnny only contributing the information of how Al had also attacked him. Al fled the scene and Lili likewise left, having lost her reasons to stick around. That left Raina and Penelope's argument to wind down, Penelope incredibly despondent and making strange morbid demands and Raina only caving to Penelope's demands out of apparent annoyance. Johnny also went along with it.

Post-Game Evaluation: 

Memorable Quotes: "You're smarter than me, Ray, and it makes no fuckin' sense to be conductin' this as a democracy, yeah? My vote shouldn't count for as much as yours, not for half as much, and I'm not saying that as a compliment or 'cause I have low self esteem or what the fuck ever, I'm saying that because I wanna fucking live, okay? I'll back you up a hundred percent, but for us to get through this, you have to take charge here, yeah?" -- Johnny's self evaluation of his role in his partnership with Raina.

"Good. No, actually bad." -- When asked by Rene how he's doing.

"Guess I'm here too." -- Reintroducing himself to Raina.

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Johnny, in chronological order.

Memories:
 * Two Breaths Walking

V6 Pregame:
 * Pizza Rats
 * People II 2: Still Peoplin'

Sadie Hawkins' Dance:
 * I Know What My Fortune Is

V6:
 * World's End Girlfriend
 * Needles and Pins
 * Thanatophobia
 * Coward Mont Blanc
 * Demons Dance Alone
 * Wait, don't be hasty
 * Another Disappointment of Many
 * Hyphaema
 * Minus Something
 * Anemia

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Johnny McKay. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''